Zemaiah Vaughn’s pick 6 drives Utah to win over UCF, snaps 7-game skid

ORLANDO — At the time, Zemaiah Vaughn was the game’s leading receiver. The problem was he never played a snap on offense.

The senior cornerback caught a pass right into his arms and wasted little time sprinting down the sideline for a 60-yard pick-six score to give the visiting Utes a 10-0 lead over UCF midway through the second quarter.

At least Vaughn ended his collegiate career in style.

“It was amazing,” Vaughn said. “I’ve been waiting for it my whole career and I’m just glad I finally got to do it before the season ended.”

The rest of the game was more of an exercise in futility as two 4-7 teams limped to the finish line in what started out as a promising season for both teams. The final game of the regular season was expected to have conference title implications, but all of that was a faded dream Friday night.

Even with more than 2,000 miles separating Utah and UCF — new conference mates and first-time opponents — the night was about putting the season to rest.

With Luke Bottari leading the charge — Utah’s fifth-string quarterback who encapsulates the problems the Utes have experienced this season — the Utes continued their season-long struggles. Utah struggled to move the ball with consistency on offense and then stalled in the red zone.

But as Utah’s defense continued to hold up its end of the bargain, Bottari got Utah’s offense into the end zone early in the fourth quarter on a 15-yard toss to Landen King — his first score of the season — in the back end. zone. And after a successful 2-point attempt on a bucket pass to Micah Bernard, Utah controlled a 21-7 lead it would never relinquish.

For good measure, Smith Snowden added a pick six of his own late in the fourth quarter as Utah went on to beat UCF 28-14 at FBC Mortgage Stadium in Orlando. The win snaps a seven game losing streak for the Utes.

“Positive way to end the season,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We had a lot of adversity this year that we faced. These guys just hung in there, like I said, the whole last two months. No drop in their work ethic, no drop in their focus, their concentration, how they approaches the company, (they are) a pleasure to coach.

“Even though we were a long way from where we wanted to be and a completely different season than we had hoped for, we still can’t say how much I think of these seniors and this team as a whole. So very positive.”

Bottari, now 2-0 as a starter for the Utes, finished the night throwing for 111 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-20 passing.

In his final collegiate game, Bernard finished with a team-high 87 rushing yards on 22 carries, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark in a season for the first time in his career. Entering the final game, Bernard needed 78 rushing yards to surpass the mark.

Bernard had 56 yards at halftime, but could only get a few yards here and there in the third quarter before eventually eclipsing it in the final minutes of the quarter.

“It meant a lot,” Bernard said. “I knew how much I needed going into the game … Just to hit it, it was just — that was my goal at the beginning of the season — 1,000 yard rusher — so I’m glad that I checked that off my list.”

UCF got things going early to start the game, getting the ball downfield with relative ease before Lander Barton stripped sacked quarterback Dylan Rizk as Logan Fano jumped on the ball to give Utah an early stop.

However, Utah could only go 27 yards down the field and settled for a 37-yard field goal on their opening drive. But the early scoring meant Utah never trailed in the game.

The Knights led the Big 12 in total offense entering Friday night’s game, but Rizk and the offense couldn’t get much going against Utah’s defense, which forced three turnovers, five sacks for 62 yards and 10 tackles for loss .

Rizk threw for 118 yards and an interception on 11-of-27 passing in the loss before being replaced under center in the second half by EJ Colson, who threw for 70 yards — including a 6-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left in the game. — on 8-of-12 passed.

“It was good to be able to send our seniors off to the last game with a win,” Whittingham said. “Just a great effort on defense. It was the No. 1 offense in the Big 12, statistically, coming in and defensive guys did a great job. Scored twice on defense, held them to way less than that, they have averaged, and so very pleased with it.”

The Knights got the ball moving a bit after Vaughn’s pick six, moving the ball down the field with relative ease on a 10-play, 89-yard drive that was capped by a 5-yard rushing touchdown by RJ Harvey.

The score gave Harvey the all-time touchdown record for UCF and suddenly turned a two-score game into a three-point game.

Utah responded with a 24-yard field goal, but had a chance on the previous play for a touchdown. The score never materialized after Bottari tipped a dish to the touchline that had no chance of being caught.

But the offense did just enough, including no turnovers, to win.

“It felt good, but at the same time, it’s bittersweet,” Bernard said. “It’s the last, last of our careers here in Utah. So it felt good to finally sing ‘Utah Man’ and smile and have fun.”